Goldey-Beacom College Athletics Celebrates Veterans Day at The Summit

General | 11/26/2019 12:00:00 AM

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Goldey-Beacom made its annual trip on Veterans Day to one of its favorite places for its community service endeavors, The Summit in Hockessin, DE.

Many of the Lightning's student-athletes and administrators stopped by the retirement community that houses veterans of the military to honor them on this special day. A combined group of 15 student-athletes, staff and faculty ushered the veterans to their seats for the hour-long ceremony and afterward spent time listening to more stories from the veterans.

"We have been working with folks at The Summit for about four years and it is very heart-warming to continue having our young people remain invested in the folks of the greatest generation," Associate Athletic Director Jeremy Benoit said. "Every time we go, it is so rewarding to watch our students interact with the veterans and see how much they both gain from just interacting. Time and good conversation are two very valuable commodities."

Thanks to hard work and care for our brave soldiers, Goldey-Beacom in 2019 grabbed third place for the 2019 NCAA Division II Award of Excellence. The athletics department received $1,000 for the honor at the NCAA Convention in Orlando with the intention for future community engagement events.

This award is annually presented to one institution that best promotes the community engagement initiative adopted by Division II. This award takes into consideration one activity and is judged based on the type of outreach program, student-athlete involvement, athletic team involvement and athletic department involvement.

Goldey-Beacom's honor entitled "Veterans of The Summit: Stories of Service" comes from its work with The Summit. With the help of "GBC Cares," the department's community service arm, this is the fourth academic year in which the College's student-athletes have volunteered their time and talents to provide help, entertainment and friendship to many who served in the United States military.

The department in 2019 also was the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference Community Engagement Award.

GBC Cares in 2018 worked with The Summit to transcribe the lives of the veterans and how it would be presented. Those involved included members of our Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, the general student-athlete body, Lightning Studio (a multimedia student organization), GBC Lit (a literary student organization) and members of the Athletics and Development staffs. The primary organizers of the project were Lorenzo Gama from Men's Soccer, Geoff Stone from Lightning Studio and Benoit.

Many of the aforementioned took part in conversations with 39 of the veterans which not only discussed their stories, but fostered friendships, created memories and left everyone with a warm feeling in their heart along with new knowledge in their brain. The work of everyone was transcribed into a book with stories and pictures that was released this spring.

"I can easily say that this service project has had a greater positive impact on the lives of our veterans than any other presentation, event or activity since opening our doors in 2015," The Summit Independent Living Program Director Scott Thomas said. "What began as a short-term means to chronicle life experiences has become a series of ongoing relationships between our residents and the Goldey-Beacom Students."

The work with The Summit is just the latest example of community service performed by the College through GBC Cares. Other endeavors included, but are not limited to, celebrating National Women and Girls in Sport Day at a local elementary school, the tennis team helping with Tennithon and the Delaware Wheelchair Tennis Championships, the softball team helping with both the Thanksgiving collection for the New Castle County EMS Division Paramedics and Toys for Tots and both baseball and softball taking part in the Juvenile Diabetes Run.

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